Perhaps, or probably, entirely by coincidence... on my Swift Parrot and
Regent Honeyeater survey of Campbell Park on Saturday (a double nil
return) I saw my biggest ever flock of Double-barred Finches in the COG
AOI - 13 birds. On the day, it was also a bit of a honeyeater nirvana -
White-eared, White-naped, Fuscous, Yellow-faced, Brown-headed
Honeyeaters along with Red Wattlerbirds and Noisy Miners. Lerps seemed
to be the attractant. Even the Australian Ravens were working the
leaves... do they eat lerps?
On the general question of unknown unknowns, my guess is that external
variables (eg climate) are changing constantly, often in unpredictable
ways, and birds will respond to these unpredictable changes in ways that
are sometimes surprising, which I find very enjoyable.
With a slightly different focus, one of the unknown unknowns for me has
been the difficulty with identifying the egrets, which has received
several excellent posts recently. I had previously more or less given up
determining the species for many of my egret sightings because I just
wasn't getting it. Now I realize it wasn't me, or my binoculars, but the
egrets! I hope the lumpers get to them soon.
Con
martin butterfield wrote:
GBS Charts have been completed for CSIRO Crace (and I'm not sure if
they defined the same area within the compound) over a couple of
periods by various observers. These show the area to have the highest
number of Double-barred Finches per observer week (effectively 'A') of
any suburb in the ACT. Most other high scoring areas are on the
fringe of the urban area.
There were 178 observations of the species in this area, mainly of 2-6
birds with a few in double digits. 45 birds is well above the
previous numbers recorded at the site.
Overall the species has been recorded at least once in 52 suburbs with
Kaleen coming in at #34 - possibly reports come from parts of this
large suburb away from the grassy areas to the North.
Martin
On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 5:59 PM, Damien Farine <
<>> wrote:
Double-barred finches are very common around my building at CSIRO
in Crace (across the barton hwy from Kaleen). I've had 45 in the
trees outside my office a few weeks ago, and they have been
resident as long as I've been working there (they bred last summer).
Damien
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 17:43:06 +1000
From:
<>
To:
<>
Subject: [canberrabirds] Unknown unknowns
I visited a friend's place in Kaleen on Sunday (not a birdo),
and my eye was caught by the large flock of sparrows (c.20) in
his back garden. The attraction was a large feeding tray full
of budgie seed. My eyebrows went up still further when I
realized that the sparrows were accompanied by a small flock
of 10-12 double-barred finches -- regular visitors according
to my friend -- as were red-browed finches. Also briefly
present was a solitary yellow-faced HE. My friend's place
backs onto the open grassland between Kaleen and the Barton
Hwy, which I suppose explains the presence of the finches, but
I was still surprised to see so many.
This caused me to wonder just how much we don't know (and
don't know that we don't know, as Rummy would say) about bird
populations in Canberra, despite all our collective
ticking/surveying/record-keeping efforts. Any thoughts? Was I
wrong to be surprised?
John Brannan
--
36 Challinor Cres., Florey, Canberra ACT 2615, Australia
Ph.: (+612) 6258 6038 Fax: (+612) 6258 6238
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